URGENT APPEALS

"There is an invisible wall that blocs the "legal" immigration in the Old Continent. The borders of this Fortress are invisible to the major part of citizens, because they are composed by laws, but their result is visible as a Human tragedy".

Marco Rovelli Italian writer

UNITED for Intercultural Action protests against the building of a "Fortress Europe", which leads to the death of desperate people looking for a safe refuge.

Geneva – Tbilisi, June 9th 2008 – The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has just made public its recommendations on the situation on children’s rights in Georgia, noting that it “remains concerned about the information indicating that children continue to be victims of arbitrary detention, police brutality and ill-treatment in detention facilities”.

We are writing to express our profound concern about legislative amendments lowering the age of criminal responsibility and urge you to take immediate steps to repeal them. If the amendments go into force as planned on July 1, Georgia risks flouting its international legal obligations and causing irreparable damage to the lives of children.

When Azerbaijan and Armenia became members if the Council of Europe in January of 2001, the Parliamentary Assembly of this organization noted the availability of problems of political repressions and political prisoners (Opinion 221, iv, par. b,c and Opinion 222, iv, par. b respectively). Following Opinions 221 and 222, the Secretary General of CE appointed the group of experts who had examined 25 “pilot cases” on these countries and worked out criteria of “political prisoner”.